Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) -- The Bush administration named a U.S. attorney from Chicago as a special prosecutor to uncover who leaked the name of an undercover CIA operative to the news media as Attorney General John Ashcroft removed himself from the case.

Ashcroft's deputy, James Comey, told a Justice Department news briefing in Washington that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, a career prosecutor with experience in terrorism and political corruption cases, will run the leak probe.

Fitzgerald is ``Eliot Ness with a Harvard law degree and a sense of humor,'' Comey said, referring to the legendary lawman who pursued gangster Al Capone during Prohibition. Fitzgerald is ``the perfect man for the job,'' Comey said.

Investigators are trying to identify the White House aide or government official who disclosed in July that the wife of a Bush administration critic worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. Democrats in Congress had urged appointment of a special prosecutor, arguing Ashcroft is too politically tied to the White House to be impartial.

Fitzgerald will have complete independence to conduct the probe with power to subpoena lawyers and members of the media, and would have to come to the Justice Department only for more resources, Comey said. He said Ashcroft recused himself out of ``an abundance of caution'' to avoid any appearance of a conflict.

Comey declined to comment on the progress of the investigation or whether any actual conflict of interest had arisen for Ashcroft.

Accumulation of Facts

``An accumulation of facts has led us to this point,'' Comey said. ``It was always in (Ashcroft's) mind that it might be necessary at some point for him to step aside from this.''

Fitzgerald will determine how long the probe lasts and where it will be based, Comey said. He also will decide whether to replace the current investigators in the three-month-old probe that has been directed by John Dion, a career prosecutor who heads the Justice Department's counterespionage section.

Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards of North Carolina said Fitzgerald's appointment ``comes far too late'' and ``is completely unacceptable.'' He said ``America's security will be compromised'' until the leaker is found and punished.

Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, welcomed Fitzgerald's appointment. It ``is not everything we asked for, but it comes darn close,'' he said. ``The American people can, as a result, feel more assured that there will be a full and thorough investigation.''

Bush was informed of the development today and supports it, said Trent Duffy, a White House spokesman. Bush ``wants to get to the bottom of this,'' he said.

Corruption Case

Fitzgerald headed a five-year federal investigation into corruption in the Illinois Secretary of State's office that led to the indictment of former Illinois Governor George Ryan, a Republican. Nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for declaring a moratorium on the state's death penalty, Ryan pleaded not guilty last week to 18 counts including fraud, bribery and racketeering.

The investigation was a blow to the state's Republican Party, prompting Ryan not to seek a second term last year and leading to the election of Democrat Rod Blagojevich.

Fitzgerald also was a prosecutor of the August 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York.

The Justice Department opened its criminal investigation of the CIA leak case at the request of the spy agency after syndicated columnist Robert Novak wrote that Valerie Plame, wife of Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson, was an undercover CIA operative.

A 1982 law makes it a crime for officials with access to the information to disclose the identity of an undercover intelligence operative.

Bush Claim Challenged

Wilson, a former U.S. diplomat, challenged President George W. Bush's claim that Iraq sought to buy uranium ore from Niger to make nuclear weapons. In 2002, the CIA sent Wilson, a former U.S. diplomat, to the African nation to investigate a report of such uranium purchases.

Wilson reported back to the CIA there was no truth to the allegation and revealed his findings in a New York Times article in July. Novak, quoting unidentified administration officials, then reported that Wilson got the CIA assignment on the recommendation of his wife.

Novak, in a subsequent interview with Newsday, said ``two senior administration officials'' had ``dumped'' the information on him.

Wilson has charged that the leak was orchestrated by the White House to intimidate anyone who might challenge the Bush administration's rationale for going to war against Iraq. He charged that White House political director Karl Rove leaked the information, then backed off the accusation. White House spokesman Scott McClellan denied that Rove was a source of the leak.

Last Updated: December 30, 2003 16:11 EST